Defence and Sustainability: Pioneering a Green IT Revolution
Guest blog by Andrew Grigg, Head of Sustainability Consulting and Dr Kevin Macnish, Head of Ethics and Sustainability Consulting at Sopra Steria #DefTechWeek
In today’s Defence landscape, sustainability has become as important as operational readiness. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is not just concerned with preparing for conflict and ensuring military capability, it is about safeguarding the future security and well-being of our nation. This includes addressing the environmental challenges that threaten our way of life.
The MoD’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 reflects its broader mission to protect security, support life, and sustain the future. And while digital technology has brought huge benefits to the Defence industry and to our everyday lives, are we prepared for its environmental cost? New uses for digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) in Defence, are constantly emerging. The Defence sector recognises that AI has enormous potential to enhance capabilities, improve productivity, and maximise strategic advantage with better management of data.
The MoD has stated its commitment to safe and responsible principles in the use of AI, which includes the potential harmful environmental impact. Technology currently produces 3.7% of global emissions, and that number could soar to 14% by 2040 as digital technologies like AI become more widespread. Even in the next two years, the energy consumption of AI data centres, the places where storage and processing takes place when information is uploaded to the cloud, is projected to double. This is the same annual energy use as a country the size of Japan. By next year, AI's demand for natural resources is set to skyrocket. Freshwater usage alone could rise from 1.1 billion m³ in 2015 to 6.6 billion m³, equivalent to the annual water consumption of entire nations. These stats drive home why sustainable practices in sectors like Defence are essential.
The response
Sopra Steria has doubled down on its industry-leading position on sustainability by helping clients manage and reduce their carbon footprint. In the UK, we’ve worked closely with a defence agency to measure the carbon impact of its current and forecast IT estate. Our analysis showed that the current technology growth trajectory would miss Net Zero targets without new policies.
This is not to say that Defence should stop investing in technology. It’s essential that we maintain the security of the UK and that we’re able to continue to have global influence for democracy and individual freedom. For example, the MoD's Digital Backbone strategy aims to position the UK Defence industry at the forefront of technological advancements, ensuring it remains agile and responsive to emerging threats and challenges. This leads to a clear challenge: how can we maintain an effective defence capability without it costing the earth? Beyond that, can we use technology to improve Defence and benefit the environment?
Lessons from history
History shows us how technology evolves to meet new challenges. Think of the car industry in the 20th century—initially, safety wasn’t a top priority, with no seatbelts or airbags. But as accidents increased, so did public demand for safer cars. Similarly, today's environmental crisis could be the push that drives tech innovation toward sustainability. As the adage goes, necessity is the mother of invention.
In the 1960s seatbelts and wing mirrors were optional. Braking would lock the wheels, and crash tests were unheard of. In 1966, President Johnson pointed out that nearly three times as many Americans had died in traffic accidents than in all the wars America had fought combined. The following decade, oil crises hiked the price of fuel. American consumers responded by turning to smaller, more efficient vehicles from Japan than the US gas guzzlers of the 1950s.
These two crises (in safety and in cost) clearly did not lead to the death of the automobile industry. Far from it. What they did was introduce engineering challenges that had not been prioritised before and led to new inventions, from airbags and cruise control, to crash test dummies. Thus shifting the values in manufacturing vehicles, from aesthetics and power to efficiency and safety.
The need to be creative
Rather than seeing the environmental challenge as a black and white issue, pitting the security of the state against that of the environment, we can learn from history. The crises in the automobile industry were not existential for that industry, and nor is the current crisis for technology. Instead, we need to think how to meet the challenge in new and creative ways. We need the sustainable technology equivalent of seatbelts and airbags.
At Sopra Steria, we’re already working with European defence organisations and others to address environmental challenges creatively. In addition to the UK example above, we’ve worked with Norway’s Inland County Municipality to use Virtual Reality to prepare communities for climate-related disasters. This allows users to experience and plan for scenarios like floods and landslides, improving community resilience and disaster readiness, tasks that will fall to the military in coming years. By combining technology with practical planning, we’re helping to set a new standard for climate resilience strategies across Europe.
Through these initiatives we’ve seen that sustainable technology is not only good for the environment; it’s good for the budget. Reuse, reduce and recycle is generally cheaper than replace, and running exercises in a virtual environment is cheaper than with people and machinery. Early adopters of safety in the automobile industry realised significant benefits from taking the initiative in this space. Suppliers in the Defence sector should do the same with the environment.
Digital sustainability in four steps
So, how can we start making our digital practices more sustainable? Here are four practical steps to help any organisation reduce the carbon footprint of its technology.
- Measure: The first action to take is measurement. Lord Kelvin is reputed to have said, “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it”. It is imperative to measure the impact of IT on both the organisation and the environment. Online calculators such as Datavizta can be used to measure environmental impacts of digital technology.
- Plan: Secondly, set objectives against long term goals. If you don’t have a carbon reduction plan that includes digital technology, then you have little hope of meeting your long-term sustainability goals, especially if you’re using AI.
- Act: Thirdly, take action. This could be building sustainability right into your procurement process and demanding regular reporting on carbon emissions from your supply chain. Or it could be optimising the energy efficiency of data centres, migrating applications to the cloud or identifying and killing ‘Ghost Servers’. Any of us can delete old accounts, emails, files, and data from cloud storage; or stop and think before requesting new IT.
- Review: Finally, once you have acted, go back and measure your impact using the same calculators described in point one.
Sustainable technology isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a strategic necessity. By setting objectives, measuring impacts, and taking decisive action, Defence can cut its carbon footprint, cut its costs and lead the way in resilience. The choice is ours: will we make sustainability a core part of our mission?
Find out more
Sopra Steria has worked with the public and private sectors and has a significant presence in Defence, working with the Defence Infrastructure Organisation on housing support; providing IT support to Defence Science and Technology Laboratory; and providing logistic application development and support services to manage inventory and training with Defence Equipment & Support. Further, we are recognised industrial leaders in sustainability, having been in CDP’s A list for six years in a row, and identified as best in class by PAC for sustainability-related consulting. We are passionate about helping our clients create ways to use IT intelligently and sustainably. If you’re interested in finding out more, contact [email protected]
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Fred Sugden
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Fred is responsible for techUK's activities across the Defence and National Security sectors, working to provide members with access to key stakeholders across the Defence and National Security community. Before taking on the role of Associate Director for Defence and National Security, Fred joined techUK in 2018, working as the Programme Head for Defence at techUK, leading the organisation's engagement with the Ministry of Defence. Before joining techUK, he worked at ADS, the national trade association representing Aerospace, Defence, Security & Space companies in the UK.
Fred is responsible for techUK’s market engagement and policy development activities across the Defence and National Security sectors, working closely with various organisations within the Ministry of Defence, and across the wider National Security and Intelligence community. Fred works closely with many techUK member companies that have an interest in these sectors, and is responsible for the activities of techUK's senior Defence & Security Board. Working closely with techUK's Programme Head for Cyber Security, Fred oversees a broad range of activities for techUK members.
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Raya Tsolova is a Programme Manager at techUK.
Prior to joining techUK, Raya worked in Business Development for an expert network firm within the institutional investment space. Before this Raya spent a year in industry working for a tech start-up in London as part of their Growth team which included the formation and development of a 'Let's Talk Tech' podcast and involvement in London Tech Week.
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Prior to joining techUK, from 2016-2024 Jeremy was International Security Programme Manager at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) coordinating research and impact activities for funders including the FCDO and US Department of Defense, as well as business development and strategy.
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Authors
Dr Kevin Macnish
Digital Ethics Consulting Manager, Sopra Steria
Dr Kevin Macnish has been interviewed widely, including on BBC national television and radio and has spoken at both the House of Commons and the House of Lords in relation to digital ethics. In 2018, Kevin published The Ethics of Surveillance: an introduction (Routledge), in 2020 Big Data and Democracy (Edinburgh University Press) and he is currently working on Surveillance in Times of Emergency (Oxford University Press). Kevin has published more than 40 academic articles and chapters on the ethics of privacy, AI, and cybersecurity, and is a frequent speaker at international trade and academic conferences. He is a visiting Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, where Kevin gained his PhD in digital ethics, and a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ Research Advisory Board.
Andrew Grigg
Head of Sustainability Consulting, Sopra Steria
